San Salvador Travel Guide, El Salvador

San Salvador is the industrial hub of El Salvador. It is the capital of the nation too. The city of San Salvador is a cultural powerhouse with lots to see, experience and explore. The city holds the position of being the second largest one after Guatemala in Central America. A lot of tourists avoid the place for its old stories of gang violence and brutal wars. But the law and order situation in the city has undergone a tremendous change in the past few years. Getting around in the central areas of the town and avoiding the places like Soyopango that are prone to nuisance can make your trip easy and safe. The city has a good number of shopping avenues, glittering streets with great restaurants and has almost everything that can make your trip a memorable one.

Statistics

Area: 568 sq Km

Population: 6,822,378

Currency: Salvadoran colon

Languages spoken: Spanish

Architecture

San Salvador was founded in the sixteenth century. Most of the buildings and monuments of the early period have been destroyed by the ruthless earthquakes in the region. Now days the buildings in the city have been designed to with stand the seismic activity that is very common in the region. The Spanish colonial architecture can be best seen in the Roman Catholic Churches in the city. The most notable among them is the cathedral of San Salvador. The church was initially constructed in the Romanesque style but modifications due to various earth quakes mixed it with Gothic style. The church shows a perfect blend of the two styles of architecture. The architecture of Gothic towers at the Calle Gerardo Barrios is a pleasure to see.

Infrastructure

The regular earthquakes in the city have always laid hurdles in the path of development of the place. Moreover the civil wars in the period 1979 to 1992 disrupted the economy of San Salvador. After the civil war, the town slowly started recovering and moved towards rapid industrialization. Now the city has become the most important industrial town of Central America. The town has a fairly good network of rail and roads that link them to the main centers in Central America.

People and Culture

Many have a picture of people of San Salvador being unfriendly and indulging in gang wars and street violence. But a closer look into the society will get you to a good lot of sophisticated class. The best places to peep into the culture of the place are the fantastic museums in the heart of the town: the modern art museum and the museum of popular arts. The museum of modern art exhibits fantastic work done by various generations of painters of San Salvador. The museum of popular arts is the best place to get a glimpse of the age old culture of the people of San Salvador.